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Kenneth Wilson 77 Nobel Prize Physicist
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MWB
Jun 18, 2013, 5:17:52 PM6/18/13
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http://www.pressherald.com/news/Nobel-winner-for-physics-Kenneth-Wilson-dies-in-Maine.html
SACO � Kenneth Wilson, a physicist who earned a Nobel prize for
pioneering work that changed the way physicists think about phase
transitions, has died in Maine. He was 77.
Kenneth Wilson, who won a Nobel Prize as a Cornell University physicist
in 1982 for pioneering work, died Saturday in Saco.
Wilson, who died from complications of lymphoma, was in the physics
department at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., when he won the Nobel
Prize in 1982 for applying his research in quantum physics to phase
transitions, the transformation that occurs when a substance goes from,
say, liquid to gas. Wilson created a mathematical tool called the
renormalization group that is still used in physics.
The son of a Harvard chemist, the Waltham, Mass., native joined Cornell
University in 1963 and later retired from Ohio State University, where
he founded the Physics Education Research Group.
His wife, Alison Brown, still recalls the morning they learned of the
Nobel Prize. She told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she
eventually had to take the phone off the hook so her husband could
finish his breakfast.
Wilson loved to talk physics, she said.
"He was very patient and willing to explain things to people. He never
talked down to people and made them feel like they were dumb," Brown
said. "He was a kind person. He had a good way of wanting to explain
what he was doing, because he always loved what he was doing."
Wilson also was an avid hiker who enjoyed treks in Swiss Alps and
Italian Dolomites, as well as the couple's personal favorite, the
mountains of New Zealand.
Wilson didn't talk much during the hikes because he was busy working out
problems, his wife said.
"His brain was still turning over. He was cogitating on whatever problem
he was working on," she said.
The couple met through international folk dancing, a passion they both
shared, while they were at Cornell, where Brown worked in the computing
center.
Their love of kayaking brought them to Maine. The couple moved to Maine
in 1995, residing in Gray, and Wilson remained on staff at Ohio State
until retiring in 2006. He died Saturday in a nursing home in Saco.
SACO � Kenneth Wilson, a physicist who earned a Nobel prize for
pioneering work that changed the way physicists think about phase
transitions, has died in Maine. He was 77.
Kenneth Wilson, who won a Nobel Prize as a Cornell University physicist
in 1982 for pioneering work, died Saturday in Saco.
Wilson, who died from complications of lymphoma, was in the physics
department at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., when he won the Nobel
Prize in 1982 for applying his research in quantum physics to phase
transitions, the transformation that occurs when a substance goes from,
say, liquid to gas. Wilson created a mathematical tool called the
renormalization group that is still used in physics.
The son of a Harvard chemist, the Waltham, Mass., native joined Cornell
University in 1963 and later retired from Ohio State University, where
he founded the Physics Education Research Group.
His wife, Alison Brown, still recalls the morning they learned of the
Nobel Prize. She told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she
eventually had to take the phone off the hook so her husband could
finish his breakfast.
Wilson loved to talk physics, she said.
"He was very patient and willing to explain things to people. He never
talked down to people and made them feel like they were dumb," Brown
said. "He was a kind person. He had a good way of wanting to explain
what he was doing, because he always loved what he was doing."
Wilson also was an avid hiker who enjoyed treks in Swiss Alps and
Italian Dolomites, as well as the couple's personal favorite, the
mountains of New Zealand.
Wilson didn't talk much during the hikes because he was busy working out
problems, his wife said.
"His brain was still turning over. He was cogitating on whatever problem
he was working on," she said.
The couple met through international folk dancing, a passion they both
shared, while they were at Cornell, where Brown worked in the computing
center.
Their love of kayaking brought them to Maine. The couple moved to Maine
in 1995, residing in Gray, and Wilson remained on staff at Ohio State
until retiring in 2006. He died Saturday in a nursing home in Saco.
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